2010-12-09 - Covenant College

BAGPIPE
the
Vol. 57 No. 12
December 9, 2010
bagpipeonline.com
Domestic
by Adrienne Belz &
Juliet Cangelosi
[email protected]
Even the most unique and quirky
halls at Covenant evolve. But
over the last few years, students
say they believe Covenant’s hall
life has seen more drastic changes
than normal.
Multiple Resident Assistants
were recently assigned halls they
had no connection with. Traditional pranks from halls like the
Catacombs and Ghetto have been
banned. Meanwhile, Carter looks
ahead to more renovation, and
students are curious what the Residence Life committee’s goals are.
The Bagpipe decided to look
Dispute
Students and administration seek
middle ground on residential concerns
at three particular concerns to
students: Resident Assistant assignments, hall renovations, and the approach to hall traditions and pranks.
RA ASSIGNMENTS
In a meeting on Nov. 11,
student senate voiced concerns
to the Associate Dean of Student
Life, Emily Ford, about complaints
from students about RA assignments. According to Student Body
President Alex Anderson, many
students felt that RA candidates
who were plugged in on particular
halls were being swapped with other
candidates who, in turn, had close
connections with their own halls.
“Last March it seemed like they
were moved around more than
normal. It’s something that can be
confusing, perplexing, or frustrating for students,” said Anderson.
“We asked her Resident Life’s
reasons for it and talked about its
effects on smaller communities.”
Ford articulated that the residential life focuses on the college’s
macro-community rather than the
micro-community. She says Residential Life staff can see problems
as well as potential where students
may not be able to.
Anderson said that the Student
Senate has spent a lot of time discussing the importance of both hall
life and campus life.
“The school needs to have a cohesive, united group of students,”
Confessing History
[email protected]
Over the last few months, Covenant
History Professor Dr. Jay Green has
been analyzing and editing a lot of
writing--and not just his students’
papers. He recently edited a new
book of essays, Confessing History:
Explorations in Christian Faith and
the Historian’s Vocation, released in
early November.
Green and his partners, friends
John Fea and Eric Miller, collectively conceived the idea for the
book. They connected with multiple
historians, and created something
that they hope will be thought
provoking.
“We just got to thinking it was
probably time to publish something that reflected the current state
of historiography, or Christians
thinking about what it means to
do history, both from the Christian
continued on page 3
GARRETT REID
Dr. Jay Green co-edits new book
by Molly Anderson
Members of the Catacombs on the chapel lawn
said Anderson. “Campus-wide
events, all-campus RA meetings,
and even moving RAs to other
buildings can foster this campus
unity and break down some of
the negative barriers between
halls and buildings.”
But Anderson also said that
a desire for the ‘big picture’ can’t
undermine the desires of the
smaller community. “The subcommunities make up the larger
community. It is how we make
sense of a larger community...It is
easier to identify with a 20-person hall or sports team.”
Joe Lloyd, a senior who applied
continued on page 2
2 News
Sister School Takes Strides Forward
[email protected]
In Pasadena, CA no more than half
an hour from Disney, Hollywood,
the Cali. coast and Los Angeles sits a
small reformed Christian college.
Founded in 2001, Providence
Christian College is reminiscent of
Covenant’s start in the same city
over half a century ago.
Covenant shares more than
geographical history with Providence.
“Covenant looms large in the founding of Providence” said Dr. Aaron
Belz, Covenant graduate and now
professor of English at Providence.
Covenant itself began as a small,
unaccredited school in Pasadena,
Hall Life
continued from page 1
to be an RA, gave up the offer
to be on another hall because he
didn’t get the position the Five
Points, the hall he was deeply
involved in. He hopes in the future
the Residence Life will communicate with the halls to find out who
each hall wants as RA.
Abby Sherratt, Carter Hall’s
Resident Director, said she is
frustrated when people assume
how Residence Life makes their
decisions. “We don’t sit in a
room and think about how we
can switch around rooms. There’s
a process, and it’s painful and
tearful. It matters. Our job is to
know about the students, and so
we know when we make decisions it’s going to be hard. And
some people hate that.”
The way the process is currently set up, RAs cannot apply
for specific halls, and Sherratt feels
that letting halls vote would be too
divisive. Both Ford and Sherratt
admit that the RA process isn’t
perfect.
But Ford thinks the Residence
Life staff has made some successful, although drastic, decisions
when choosing RAs.
Current RA of Catacombs,
Senior Dave Connis, lived in
Founders Hall his freshman year,
characterized by its reformed theology and thorough liberal arts education. Belz is one of four Covenant
alumni working at Providence.
Aaron Belz, Ryan McIlhenny,
Max Belz, and the president of
Providence – Dr. Derek Halvorson
– all graduated from Covenant with
history degrees.
While possibly coincidental,
Dr. Belz explained the concurrence.
“Having a historical perspective is
essential to developing institutions,”
Dr. Belz said, “It’s having the perspective that this can happen that is
not isolated to the business world or
wishful thinking.”
Dr. Belz is in no rush to push
Providence into rapid growth.“I am
not anxious to see something happen
quickly,” said Dr. Belz, “I am looking
for slow growth. It takes patience.”
Providence is a “unique” place
said Dr. McIlhenny. Students at
Providence are generally “a certain
type of person,” said Dr. Belz. “They
are risk takers and have vision outside the norm…they have a founding spirit about them.”
The school is expected to gain full
accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges in the
near future. Right now Providence
offers seven majors and has between
60 to 65 students in attendance.
Providence also has an incredible retention rate. “Once students
start attending, they don’t leave,”
said Dr. Belz.
Jane Shibley, Covenant senior
and Californian says that she loves
Covenant, but “if I had my college
career to do over, I’d go to Providence.” Shibley is excited by the
fact that Californians are no longer
forced to move across the country to
get a reformed Christian education.
While the Providence student
body has remained steady for the
past few years, the number of applicants doubled in 2009. “Next year
could be the biggest class yet” said
Max Belz, Covenant alumnus and
admissions representative for Providence. Growth of the college has
been a natural result of the move
from Ontario, CA to Pasadena.
Providence isn’t accredited yet,
but, Dr. McIlhenny points out,
graduates of Providence are now
studying at Westminster Seminary,
Mid-America Reformed Seminary,
and Fuller Seminary. Schools like
Calvin, Greenville, and Covenant
Seminary are recruiting Providence
students.
“The Church would be stronger
and the world would be a better
place if there were more institutions
like Covenant -- faithful colleges that
shape students to tackle every aspect
of their life and of the world in which
they live from a biblical perspective,”
said President Halvorson.
but transferred to Second Central
for the last two years before he was
assigned the RA role. He said it
has been a challenge to take on the
position on Catacombs. “Try[ing]
to get everybody to mesh together
is still a challenge no matter how
long you’ve been there,” he said.
Sherratt said she hopes students
can learn to trust authority with
the process. “They have had more
experience ... I don’t know anyone
who loves the students more than
the people who are in charge.”
Second Central used to have a
large mural of their hall emblem,
The Duke, painted on their walls
“Now with the renovations,
they’re all gone. 2C is just a blank
wall,” Connis said.
According to Sherratt, a homogeneous campus is not the goal of
Residence Life. “I think students
tend to think something is being
taken away from them [when
buildings are renovated], and I’m
not always sure why,” said Sherratt, who wishes students better
understood that the college wants
to provide good housing and are
obligated to take care of students.
Ghetto resident Taylor Fletcher,
a junior, said he understands the
administration’s desire to improve
the quality of the dorms, but worries if Ghetto’s signature “brick”
walls are in danger.
“If [renovations] get going,
we’ll see what we can do to save the
bricks...We might start a petition,
but if they paint over them, we’ll
paint them again.”
administration gets a tighter and
tighter grip on the hall,” said
Fletcher. “Personally, if I had
seen those [pranks] when I was
previewing I would have thought,
that’s really cool! Like, they have
fun here!” said Fletcher, citing the
multiple pranks and traditions
that have been extinguished on
his hall over the last few years.”
Catacombs’ traditional pranks
including cross-dressing for all-hall
meetings and an annual “virgin
sacrifice” have specifically been
banned in the last two years.
Senior Joe Dodd, who has lived
on the hall for three years, said it
has changed a lot since he was a
freshman.
“There used to be more focus
on tradition, but traditions keep
getting taken away, and we’ve
never had a clear understanding
as to why,” he said.
Joe Oliver, RD of Founders,
said that he doesn’t view pranks as
representative of a hall’s identity,
but rather just things that halls do.
“I think of Catacombs as a community of men learning and growing together, not what they do.”
But Dodd believes traditions like pranks are critical for
building community. “Those are
ways Catacombs expresses itself.
They’re things Catacombians
bond over...a hall is about relationships, but those traditions are
a big part of what build relationships. The hall feels less unified
than it used to.”
RENOVATIONS
As halls in Carter are fixed up
and freshly painted, some residents
are worried that hall personality
will be renovated too.
GARRETT REID
by Grace Mullaney
Faculty Quote of the Week
PRANKS
Three years ago, Ghetto held a
“beach day” during preview weekend where men from the hall were
running around the chapel lawn in
swimsuits and speedos. The whole
hall was put on probation.
These days, students are required to ask Student Development
permission before playing pranks.
“It seems like every year the
Last year’s Carter Christmas
—with reporting contributed
by Kate Harrison
Have a faculty quote you’d like to see published?
Email it to [email protected]
“The belly button has huge theological implications.”
- Dr. Kelly Kapic on Jesus’ human birth in Doctrine I
Features
The Verdict
Yes...
Santa!
No...
Santa! Why are
you kissing my
mom?
Letters to the
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Established in 1955
Kate Harrison
Christmas Spirit
Professors share thoughts on the season’s reason
by Anna Wiersema
[email protected]
Dr. Daphne Haddad:
“Let Earth and Heaven
Combine” by Charles Wesley
Let earth and Heaven combine,
Angels and men agree,
To praise in songs divine
The incarnate Deity,
Our God contracted to a span,
Incomprehensibly made Man.
Dr. Ron Jones:
“Christmas and Easter”
Everyone in our family knew the
meaning of Christmas: the birth of
God who is Emmanuel, the One
who was and is now among us,
experiencing our poverty, our pain,
our joy and our lives. Yet it was
Easter where Christmas was completed in our family. We gave gifts at
Christmas but again at Easter, which
was placed at just as high a priority.
Mom shopped for "deals" all year
long so that she would have gifts to
give on both Christmas and Easter.
ents bring video cameras into the
house of the Lord to preserve images of their children acting out the
most sentimentalized version of the
Christmas story one can imagine:
nothing of the cross or the second coming of Christ, everything
focused on the plight of Mary and
Jesus as they struggle to stay warm
in a stable (doesn’t that bring a tear
to your eye? Wouldn't you like to
lend them your MasterCard so they
can afford a nice, warm room at
Holiday Inn?). For me, Christmas
represents an attempt to recover
the meaning of Christ's Advent as
I struggle to undo six decades of
cultural conditioning.
Dr. Pat Ralston:
“The 12 Days of Christmas”
A few years ago I stopped celebrating “commercial” Christmas. I now
follow the ancient church calendar,
observing Advent as a quiet time of
anticipation and spiritual introspection. I discovered the tradition of the
Jesse Tree and add an ornament each
day during Advent. On Christmas
Eve, the Christmas tree goes up; we
bless the tree and turn on the lights,
symbolizing Christ the Light of the
World. We sing and eat our favorite
Christmas treats. Then we enjoy the
12 days in the Season of Christmas.
I love getting small gifts for my
grandchildren for each day. On the
twelfth night we gather for gift-
Editor in Chief
Managing Editor
Kathryn Jarrett
Layout Editor
Adrienne Belz
News
Sam Townes
Arts
David Pifer
Sports
Lauren Hartzell
Features
Garrett Reid
Photo
Lianne Visser
Copy
Paul McLain
Web
Daniel Coulbourne
Opinion
J. Davis & A. Lutz Distribution
Cliff Foreman
Faculty Advisor
This is a Covenant College student publication
The views expressed herein do not necessarily
reflect those of the College or the student body.
Dr. Jim Wildeman:
“Christmas as Co-optation”
Christmas is an example of what
social critics would call "co-optation.” Gerald Graff defines the term
as "the defusing and domesticating
of ostensibly oppositional forms of
culture by their tolerant acceptance
and commercialization . . . . by
embrac[ing] threatening ideas and
channel[ing] them into politically
unthreatening forms." Most of our
Christmas practices have nothing
to do with the revolutionary arrival
of God as a poor baby/savior into
our world, but everything to do
with "taming" the person T.S. Eliot
called "Christ the Tiger." Even the
special programs our churches put
on have been co-opted, so that par-
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Dr. Green
continued from page 1
point of view and as an extension of
our Christian identity. So the essays
in the book flowed from that,” said
Green.
Green wrote one chapter in the
book, entitled “Public Reasoning
by Historical Analogy.” In editing
and in writing, Green’s goal was to
CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG
Isaiah Smallman
3
“produce a volume that reflected the
best thinking on the relationship
between Christianity and history
by our generation of Christian
scholars.”
In terms of process, Green said
editing and writing are very different, and editing is just a bit more
tedious.
“It feels a little bit like grading,
because you’re going through other
people’s work, you’re trying to evaluate it, you’re trying to offer people
suggestions,” said Green. “You read
these things over and over and over
again; it’s amazing how many hours
and the tedium it takes to get something like this out. It’s gratifying but
it’s almost anti-climactic.”
Some of the essays in the book
are autobiographical while others
explore theory and theology. Some
question moral judgement and at
least one is concerned with church
history, but every one looks at the
vocation of teaching. Although all
of the authors come from different
backgrounds and beliefs, they pri-
giving. The whole season has become
more relaxed, and we enjoy the new
pace and the emphasis on the true
meaning of the Incarnation.
Dr. Cliff Foreman
“A Special Christmas Memory”
I will always remember December 25, 1937, when I learned the
true meaning of Christmas.
We took the sleigh to Grampa's
house, stabled the horses, and went
in to enjoy the goose dinner that
Gramma had made. Our gifts were
small but meaningful tokens of our
love. Grampa gave me an old New
Testament that his father had given
to him. He had inserted a bookmark
at Luke 1. I read the Christmas story.
It was a sad time. Grampa's business, which employed my father
and my five uncles, was about to go
bankrupt. But we did our best to be
cheerful, nonetheless.
Dinner was over and I was enjoying a large bowl of plum pudding
with fresh cream skimmed from the
milk Gramma had gotten from Bossie
the cow that morning, when there
was a knock at the door. My father
pulled it open and an old man was
standing there on the doorstep. He
had long gray hair and a long beard.
We invited him in, but he said he
couldn't stay long. He pulled a large
roll of $100 bills out of his pocket and
handed it to Grampa. Grampa was
overwhelmed; he wanted to draw up
a promissory note, but the man said,
"You don't understand, sir—this is a
gift." Then the man rode off in a sleigh
pulled by strange horned animals.
We were all ecstatic. There was
$20,000 in the bundle, enough to
pay all of Grampa's debts.
When the police showed up later
looking for a notorious gangster, we
told them that we'd spent the whole
day celebrating Christmas and
hadn't seen a soul.
marily are employed as teachers.
As a teacher living in an academic
world, Green reflected that he has
benefited from books like this.
These are the kind that are still on
his bookshelf today because they
helped him determine his professional goals in terms of his faith.
Heads up history majors: “I am
going to assign this in Historiography,” said Green.
4 Arts
The Top of
The Top 40
by John Drexler
[email protected]
2010 has been a fascinating year
for Top 40 music. Lady Gaga
and The Black Eyed Peas took
some time off after their remarkable year in 2009, Lil’ Wayne
was in prison, Britney Spears
was, thankfully, silent. The growing trend of fast-paced dance hits
from the likes of Ke$ha and Katy
Perry has in many ways shaped
the year. Other artists still boldly
and successfully hold to a traditional pop hip hop format. But
be it hip hop or house-infused,
almost all of the biggest hits this
year are dance songs. There are
some new faces in the mix: some
good, some hopeful, and some
really, really bad. This article
discusses the notable members of
2010’s Top 40 artists.
Ke$ha
The queen of sleaze was unrelenting this year. She introduced herself with the party anthem “Tik
Tok,” establishing her adolescent,
alcohol-driven, raunchy mentality. This theme underlies her other
massive hits “Take It Off,” “Blah
Blah Blah,” and “We R Who
We R.” But there is something
undeniably contagious about her
filthiness. Those who disparage her the most are the ones
who can’t get enough of it. I am
disgusted by her every move, but
I cannot resist these songs. She is
a siren calling our generation to
replace toothpaste with whiskey
and hang out with guys that look
like Mick Jagger. Of course we
don’t give into such ridiculous
demands--that is, until the beat
starts pounding. Then, for a few
minutes, something about her
just seems right.
Rihanna
Somehow, Rihanna has managed
to consistently put out hit after
phenomenal hit over the past five
years. She rarely, if ever, flops.
And now, in the wake of a humiliating domestic abuse scandal,
she is bolder than ever. Her 2009
slow-paced dance hall tune “Rude
Boy” is emphasized by essentially
perfect, crisp production and a
fine-tuned, pulsing synth-line.
2010 proved to be a change in
pace for Rihanna: “Only Girl
(In The World)” and “What’s
My Name” further showcase her
no-nonsense vocals, but present
a more thoughtful, genuinely sad
Rihanna. After years of putting
out great music, she is just now
coming into her prime. These
three fantastic songs have positioned her as the only legitimate
threat to Beyonce’s “Queen of
Pop” status.
Mike Posner
Eminem
The most promising member of the
freshmen class of 2010 Billboard
comes from an unlikely source: a
quiet suburb outside of Detroit.
Posner’s self-produced songs
“Cooler Than Me” and “Please
Don’t Go” show off his smokey,
intriguing voice and individualistic
song writing. He’s a one man show:
he plays keyboards and sample
pads live while fiddling with a mac
book and singing spot on. His
music is not the result of some LA
producer’s calculated pop formula,
it’s the relatable output of a truly
creative song writer’s insecurities
and failures with women. Posner’s
smooth, dancy production and
sleuthy, earnest vocals combine to
create two of the coolest songs of
the year.
The angriest man in the business
is back. And, to no one’s surprise,
he’s still really, really angry. On the
rebound of an apparently successful recovery from multiple drug
addictions, he has shifted the object
of his fury from his mother and
substances to… uh… I’m not totally
sure. He’s just REALLY ANGRY.
Perhaps grasping at some former
glory, he comes across as a troubled
30-year-old with the mind of a teenage trailer-park junky. His biggest hit
“Love The Way You Lie” is a disturbing song about domestic abuse and
his inability to love his wife without
also wanting to burn her alive. It’s a
bit appalling--though unsurprising-that this song gained such popularity
on Top 40 radio, a medium usually
characterized by mindless listening.
Justin Bieber
Nicki Minaj
While Lil’ Wayne was in prison,
his female protégé temporarily
filled his role as the lovable oddball from Wayne’s group Young
Money. But she may ultimately
replace him. Her erratic, bipolar
rapping has become a staple in
American pop music. Her ability to adapt to the song at hand
while remaining true to her style
is impressive. She stole the show
on nearly every song she rapped
on this year, which is no small
feat considering that she rapped
alongside Lil’ Wayne, Drake, Sean
Kingston, Kanye West, Jay-Z, and
Jay Sean. Wheezy is free now, but
he may have created a monster
that even he can’t handle.
His music video “Baby” has just
over 402 million views—the most
views of any video on the internet,
by far. He’s nominated for two
coveted Grammys: Best New Artist
and Best Pop Vocal Album. His
two radio hits have featured Usher
and Ludacris. He’s 16. In reality,
if his songs were performed by
anyone else in the music business,
they’d be second-rate at best. They
aren’t great songs by any standards.
So, in that sense, his age is a gimmick. But we can’t hate him for the
praise he has conjured. After all,
where would pop music be today if
we shot down every self-serious kid
with a high voice and a following of
hundreds of millions of desperate
girls? We’d be in a dark, dark place
in which Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake never made it big.
David Guettat
This French House producer has
been blasting subwoofers and
erupting clubs internationally for
two decades. In 2009, when this
electro-veteran decided to tap into
the pop music scene, he got way
more than he bargained for. Guetta’s
first effort, the Black Eyed Peas’ “I
Gotta Feeling” earned a 12-week
run at number one, and number
five on Billboard’s hottest songs of
the last decade. And he was just
getting warmed up. This year alone,
he released “Sexy Chick,” “Commander,” “Club Can’t Handle Me,”
“Memories,” and “Gettin’ Over.”
Each of these songs is uniquely
impressive and ambitious. His cool
persona, jaw-dropping guest list, and
big, bassy tunes have secured him a
unique position: celebrity producer.
He carries and embodies the spirit of
clubby pop singles, and has successfully crossed over from seedy French
clubs to the LA party scene, and
now into the car stereos of many
Americans.
John’s
Top Ten
from the
Top 40
1. “Please Don’t Go” Mike Posner
2. “Letting Go (Dutty Love)” Sean Kinston ft. Nicki
Minaj
3. “What’s My Name” Rihanna ft. Drake
4. “Power” Kanye West
5. “Only Girl in the World” Rihanna
6. “Tik Tok”/ “Your Love Is My Drug” Ke$ha
7. “Cooler Than Me” Mike Posner
8. “Mine” Taylor Swift
9. “Dynamite” Taio Cruz
10. “Deuces (Remix)” Chris Brown ft. Drake, Andre
3000, Kanye West, T.I., and Fabolous
Arts
127 Hours is Rock Solid
by Daniel Tucker
[email protected]
Seven years ago, you couldn’t turn
on the news without hearing about
Aron Ralston, the avid mountain
climber who cut off his arm after
being trapped under a boulder
for more than five days. Director
Danny Boyle brings Aron’s inspirational story to the silver screen in his
latest, 127 Hours.
It’s true that 127 Hours doesn’t
offer many surprises in terms of its
story. The movie is about a guy who
gets his arm trapped, cuts it off, and
goes home. However, under Boyle’s
solid direction and James Franco’s
raw performance, the film becomes
a riveting character study.
127 Hours is an interesting departure from Boyle’s regular fare. The
director of Trainspotting and Slumdog
Millionaire, Boyle loves to film in
an urban setting where thousands
of people hustle about every day.
With his latest film, we are given the
reverse. Instead of one or two individuals amidst a group of thousands,
Boyle gives us an individual who
decides he’s better off away from the
hustle and bustle of the world.
“I can do everything on my
own,” Aron says at one point in the
film. This seems to be his motto.
Aron avoids his family, shuts out his
girlfriend, and spends most of his
free time exploring the outdoors.
Later, as Aron comes to grips with
the fact that he might die in Blue
John Canyon, he begins to realize
the folly of a life of isolation. If he’d
just picked up the phone when his
mother called or told a single friend
where he was headed, he wouldn’t
be waiting to die in a canyon, all
alone with his regrets.
Spending ninety minutes with
James Franco doesn’t necessarily
sound like riveting cinema, but
Franco masterfully carries the film
in one of the best performances of
the year. Like Tom Hanks in Cast
Away, Franco’s portrayal of Aron is
the main reason why we stick with
the film. He creates a character that
is both believable and worthy of our
time, capturing the audience’s sympathy. We don’t write Aron off for
shutting people out of his life. We
root for him every step of the way.
We cringe when he cuts his arm off,
and we share his elation after the
deed is done.
Boyle’s camera work and editing
is perhaps the highlight of the film.
127 Hours provided Boyle with the
chance to experiment with cameras.
He uses hand-held cameras along
DANGER DAYS
My Chemical Romance is back
by Walter Somerville
[email protected]
It has been four years since My
Chemical Romance released The
Black Parade, a sprawling concept
album and tribute to the great anthem rockers of the 70s. After four
years of constant touring, frontman
Gerard Way admitted in an interview that the band was a bit tired
of the theatrics and somber tone of
the shows, and that they planned on
doing a more stripped down, backto-the-basics album.
Enter Danger Days: The True Lives
of the Fabulous Killjoys, an album
no less ambitious than The Black
Parade and one that surpasses the
conceptual scope of its predecessor, shedding much of the overwrought theatrics and Gothic tones
that turned many listeners off to
the band’s 2006 venture. Though
the term “back to the basics” may
conjure thoughts of a simpler album
and a less extravagant execution, the
actual product proves, for the most
part, to be the exact opposite.
MCR are at their best when they
have a story and context in which
to place their music. Danger Days is
built around their best and most coherent album concept to date, thanks
to Way’s incredible imagination. His
recent entrance into the world of
graphic novels, The Umbrella Academy, was met with near-universal
acclaim, proving his worth as a writer
and storyteller. The story of Danger
Days follows the band’s new alteregos, the Killjoys, through a dystopian California in the year 2019 in an
adventure full of laser blasters, masks,
dastardly villains, daring rescues, and
creatures known as Draculords.
The album is structured as a radio
program narrated by a character who
introduces himself as Dr. Death Defy.
It’s a story that would fit perfectly as
a Saturday morning cartoon from the
80s. Danger Days serves as a vessel
through which the members of the
band offer tribute to their favorite
childhood pop culture relics. The
joyfulness of the album is visually
apparent in each of the music videos
released so far. The band’s devotion
to this concept enables it to succeed
where The Black Parade failed.
While the concept may remain
as grand as ever, Danger Days returns
MCR to their roots as a punk rock
band, (re)introducing a more raucous
sound without compromising the
pedigree of their catchy hooks. Single
“na na na (na na na na na na na)” is
so full of hooks that it will take weeks
to get out of your head. Others, like
“Destroya” and “Vampire Money”
showcase the brutal punk sound absent
since their first record, while the synthdriven “Planetary (go)” and riotous
“Party Poison” perfectly embody the
spirit of the Killjoys.
Though most of the songs on the
album succeed, there are several noticeable failings. “Summertime” and
“Sing,” though not failures outright,
lack the unique touch found in most
of MCR’s work. “Sing,” for example,
could easily pass for a 30 Seconds to
Mars song. Lyrically the album revels
in its subject matter. “Bullet Proof
Heart” opens with the line “I’ve
got a bullet proof heart, you’ve got
a hollow point smile.” Other songs
mention laser beams and other sci-fi
staples. It isn’t a deep album by any
means, but it is a rowdy good time,
especially when taken for what it is:
the indulgent fantasy of several men
who never quite grew up.
with ones small enough to
fit inside Aron’s water bottle.
There isn’t a dull shot in the
film. Also notable is Boyle’s
use of point of view shots that
make it feel as if we’re in the
cave with Aron.
There are times, however,
when Boyle’s drive to find innovative ways to tell his story
take away from the impact of
the film as a whole. He seems
so focused on trying to tell the
story in an interesting way—
be it through split screens or
extended dream sequences—
that he forgets to tell the story.
Despite this, 127 Hours is a triumphant and inspirational tale
that celebrates the human spirit
and serves as a reminder of the
importance of community.
5
6 Arts & Opinion
Busting Bipartisan Myths
The national debt, Chinese relations, & QE2
by Aaron Skrivan
[email protected]
It is common to hear things in
the media that are not necessarily
true, but many times they are a
spin on a partisan issue. We have
all heard them whether it be from
Glenn Beck or Keith Olbermann.
Lately however, the misinformation that I have heard in the
media—and subsequently on
campus—are not partisan issues,
rather factual errors created by
unreliable media outlets.
1. National Debt. As of
Nov. 26, 2010, the current
national debt outstanding was
$13,794,243,004,364.88,
(treasurydirect.gov) a significant
debt. Actually it is huge for what
America is used to, but nothing compared to other countries. While this figure places
our outstanding debt at 93% of
our annual GDP, the country of
Ireland is just shy of a 1300%
Debt to GDP ratio. So where has
all of the U.S. money gone? That
TARP Bailout thing, right? No.
Nearly all of the $700 Billion of
TARP has been paid back. The
best guess is that when the dust
settles, taxpayers will be out approximately $25 Billion of the
$700 Billion that was lent. Ok,
but wasn’t it Bill Clinton who left
office with a Surplus and Bush and
Obama have carelessly created an
even larger deficit? Also incorrect.
In fact, Clinton created a deficit of
$1.6 Trillion. The confusion here
comes from the fact that Clinton
lowered the public debt, making
the appearance of a federal surplus.
However, he borrowed significantly
more from intergovernmental holdings (i.e. Social Security). Having
said that, it is appropriate to note
that a $1.6 trillion dollar deficit is
small in comparison to what other
presidents have created.
2. Who owns our debt? China
owns most of it, right? Of the
$13.7 trillion U.S. debt, foreign
countries hold approximately $4.3
trillion. Of the $4.3 trillion, China
holds just under $900 billion, or
around 6.5% of our total debt. In
addition to this, these bonds do
not have a “call feature” as some
believe, meaning that China is able
to collect ONLY interest payments
AARON SKRIVAN
until the life of the bond matures.
Thus, China is actually not in the
driver’s seat as many believe, and
have a vested interest in the well
being of our economy.
3. What does QE2 mean,
and why do both Democrats and
Republicans hate it so much? QE2
stands for “The second round of
Quantitative Easing.” Essentially,
the government is buying back
$600 Billion of the national debt,
not only to decrease our debt but
also to put more dollar bills into
the economy. Institutions and
individuals own treasury bills as an
investment. If the federal reserve
buys them back, the owners will receive cash for their bonds, and they
have the ability to get out of the
investment without having to wait
until they mature a few years down
the road. Sounds great right? The
downside is in order to do this the
Federal reserve will have to print
dollar bills, making each dollar bill
that we hold in our wallet fractionally less valuable. The upside to the
audience reading this is that all of
those student loans that you have
essentially went down in value with
the dollar. Since China owns $900
billion of U.S. debt, they are not
thrilled with the whole QE2 thing,
nor are those who own great a deal
of wealth.
It is my hope that this article
helped to explain some of the situations going on in our Economy
right now. In addition to this, I
would encourage partisan replies
to this article on how people feel
about the above issues.
Community: In Sickness and Health
by Patricia Quigley
[email protected]
It occurred to me recently that on this
campus, students sometimes accidentally isolate other students. While this
is surely not malicious, it is unfortunate that it happens at Covenant, a
college that boasts of community.
In several settings I have seen
students being left out of the community atmosphere around them.
Sometimes, I see a lone freshmen
sitting by themselves at lunch and
I wonder why no one has taken
them under their wing. (And, yes, it
occurs to me that I am also a part of
the problem by not including them.)
Other times, I am on my hall and
notice that there seems to be distance
between various “cliques” among us.
I know that it is easy to develop a
“group” on your hall but that is not
what a healthy Christian community
looks like. A solid Christian community should be unified regardless of
people’s differences in background,
age, or class year. When a community of believers is growing and
functioning in a biblical manner,
the feel of the atmosphere should be
inclusive, not exclusive.
Include those that are struggling
with tremendous challenges in their
personal lives. 1Thessalonians 5:11
says, “Encourage one another and
build each other up, just as you are
doing.” How can we do this as a
community if we are divided among
ourselves, rather than united as one?
Truthfully, we cannot. We have to
be aware of the needs of the body
in order to meet them. To know
the needs of others, we each have to
listen to others actively, not passively;
that way, the compassion shown in
this body on the Covenant campus
will not come across as dutiful or
flakey; but real and true and Christfilled in all things.
Also, a word to the struggling, I
don’t know your exact struggle, but
I know the pain you must feel. Just
a reminder: no one is a mind reader.
Not Chaplain Messner, your RA or
your DC. Not me. Not anyone. It is
far healthier to share a burden than
to sorrowfully bear it alone. You
are on this mountain to be reached
by God and by His people – take
advantage of that gift!
Romans 12:15-16 says: “Rejoice
with those who rejoice, weep with
those who weep. Live in harmony
with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.”
Through the loss of my mother
earlier this fall, God has been teaching me to allow others to grieve with
me. This is not so much because
everyone “gets it” and grieves my
mom specifically, but rather because
we are a community that should
truly grieve the brokenness of this
world together.
In closing, we should seek to be
a community “in sickness and in
health”, for lack of a better term. We
should all strive to be unified in both
sorrow and joy. We should seek the
new students, off-campus students,
and “old” students alike with the
same zealous compassion as when
Christ first sought us. Again, for the
many broken and hurting on this
campus, don’t isolate yourselves, for
that is like butter to a wound. My
prayer is that you would find fellowship and comfort among these, your
brothers and sisters in Christ.
Arts & Opinion
7
10. Jackie Onassis
The Top 10 Coolest
We all assume John F. Kennedy was elected because of
his ties to the mafia, but should we not also assume that
it was because of the affluent stylings of Jacqueline Bouvier? After JFK’s assassination, this heroine of cool went
on to marry the fortune of Greek shipping magnate and
billionaire Aristotle Onassis. Jackie-O maintained her
spot in the public eye late into her life as queen of high
society.
People of the 20th Century
The 20th century was the century of cool, when cool was born and raised, and as some would
have it, died. The following ten children of the 20th century are the best exemplars of what it
is to be cool without ceasing. They were always cool, 100% of the time, 24/7. Each bred their
own brand of cool, and everybody else’s coolness is inherently indebted to them.
9. Bruce Lee
8. Jackson Pollack
King of two kingdoms, the golden son of China ruled
both martial arts and Kung Fu films with an iron fist -thus the dragon enters the roster. This self-instated actor,
director and philosopher could snatch a dime off the palm
of your hand before you could close it, leaving a penny
behind. Even Kareem Abdul Jabbar was no match for the
founder of Jeet Kune Do martial arts (translated The Way
of Intercepting Fists).
by
Who knew splattered paint could look so cool? His
signature drip technique made him one of the most
famous and controversial artists of the 20th century. In
regards to his relationship with Native American art Pollock stated: “I feel nearer, more a part of the painting,
since this way I can walk round it, work from the four
sides and literally be in the painting.” Spoken like a true
visionary. Sadly he died in an alcohol-induced car crash.
Zach Knuth &
Daniel Coulbourne
6. Nelson Mandela
7. Marlon Brando
Jack Nicholson once said, “When Marlon dies, everybody
moves up one.” Unfortunately for “everybody,” Brando’s
cool never died. Whether playing a leather jacket wearing motorcycle outlaw or a gangster with cotton balls in
his mouth, Brando always played it cool. But the essential
Hollywood bad boy refused to let his swagger be limited
to the screen. He was an outspoken advocate of American
Civil Rights and Native American Movements, and even
punched Ron Galella (yes, the same one) in mouth.
After his 1962 arrest by South African police in cooperation with the C.I.A., the most inherently uncool
organization in history, Nelson Mandela spent 18 of
the next 27 years behind bars as a political prisoner.
This anti-apartheid activist and co-founder of the
armed branch of the African National Congress was
initially committed to nonviolent protest, but eventually became one of the best known freedom fighters of
the century.
4. Nico
5. Che Guevera
After being captured by the C.I.A. and led off to his
execution, Che was asked by a Bolivian soldier if he
was thinking about his own mortality. He responded
by saying, “No, I’m thinking about the immortality
of the revolution.” To an entire generation he became
synonymous with rebellion; loved by some and despised
by others. Che’s dedication to armed resistance would
become too cool to ignore.
Christa Paffgen rose to fame in the German fashion
industry as a model when she was given her adopted
name by a photographer. She got too hot to trot
through collaborations with the Velvet Underground,
Andy Warhol, Federico Fellini, and Philippe Garrel. She also enjoyed a successful career as a solo artist
despite being deaf in one ear. A rumored vegetarian
and self-proclaimed nihilist, Nico kicked a fifteen year
heroin addiction shortly before her death.
3. Hunter S. Thompson
2. Muhammad Ali
The creator of Gonzo journalism, the rock star of journalists bred an unrelenting and bastardized cool that few
would dare to associate with. Through the art of Gonzo
he exposed the Kentucky Derby, Las Vegas, our Presidents, and even the Superbowl for what they really are,
the results of a depraved and utterly pathetic humanity.
His funeral consisted of a 153 foot tower with a double
thumbed fist holding a peyote button situated atop with
a cannon which launched his cremated ashes, while fireworks bombarded the sky to Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine
Man” and Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit In the Sky.”
Muhammad Ali once said “I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I’m in
a world of my own.” For nearly 30 years he “floated like
a butterfly” and “stung like a bee.” No athlete has ever
defined a sport as much as Ali defined boxing. As a devout Muslim, Ali refused to serve in the US Army after
the draft, and subsequently was arrested and stripped
of his boxing license and title. He is famous for saying
“I ain’t got no quarrel with the Vietcong. No Vietcong
ever called me N*****.” The Supreme Court eventually
reversed the decision.
1
Miles
Davis
“I was minding my own business when something
says to me, “you ought to blow trumpet. I have
just been trying ever since.” The Birth of The Cool.
Cool belongs to Miles Davis like peanut butter
belongs to George Washington Carver. It’s his; you
and everybody else owe your so-called “coolness”
to the man with the horn. He sketched Spain, took
the seven steps to heaven, and left us all kind of
blue. He sported a mullet and looked good doing
it, because “For [him], music and life are all about
style.”
8 Sports
GARRETT REID
Shifting
Gears
Basketball and fan support at Covenant
by David Pifer
[email protected]
Junior Chase Foster, who plays guard for Covenant, goes up for a shot
FINAL SCORES:
Men’s Basketball @ Sewanee (51-60
L)
Women’s Basketball @ Sewanee (94100 L)
Women’s Soccer @ King (0-4 L)
Men’s Soccer vs. Oakland City (2-2;
4-5 L in PKs)
Women’s Volleyball vs. Oakland City
(0-3 L)
Women’s Volleyball vs. Campbellsville (0-3 L)
At most schools, the Christmas
season brings a welcome change to
the athletics scene. Bowl season aside,
football is over, and the other peripheral sports have run their course.
Gone are the tailgaters, the marching
bands, and the brisk fall temperatures.
Arriving are the chilling winds, the
half-time contests, and the crazy,
creative fans. The spectators have
exchanged their seats in the outdoor,
gridiron-laden stadiums for the more
accommodating, indoor seats of the
hardcourt arena. Basketball season has
taken center stage.
Yet here at Covenant College,
that doesn’t always seem to be the
case. Even with soccer – Covenant’s
equivalent to other school’s football
– having finished its season, and
volleyball having played out its final
sets, the excitement for basketball
doesn’t always seem to be in the air.
Sure, one can pin it on the fact that
the team has won an average of 5
games over the past two seasons,
or that the seniors have seen three
different coaches in a four year span,
but the fact remains that schools, and
the students in particular, should get
excited for basketball season
Even the most average sports fan
has most likely heard of the crazy
student section at Duke University.
Dubbed the Cameron Crazies. The
group sets about packing out the
stands at every one of Duke’s home
basketball games with creative,
collaborated chants, and plenty of
rowdy, raucous cheering. And while
it is safe to say that a small school like
Covenant could never live up to that
level of grandeur, it is also safe to say
that the school’s students, fans, and
players could up the excitement level
just a notch.
The Midnight Madness extravaganza was a good start in that
direction, but after that event the
excitement seemed to dissipate due to
the interrupting Thanksgiving Break,
the knowledge that finals were around
the corner, and the fact that the other
sports programs were in postseason
contention. Attendance and support
at the home opener against Berry
College, for example, was minimal,
and the year looked like it was shaping up to hold yet another sparsely
populated gym, and yet another
dismal record.
However, this past Wednesday
night’s game against the visiting Emory University Eagles seemed to prove
otherwise. On the heels of the team’s
first win of the season against LaGrange College, and following a spirited effort against perennial GSAC
conference champion Maryville
College, optimism was high in the
Covenant basketball community and
it showed both on the court and in
the stands. “The stands were packed,”
said senior spectator Chris Sossou. “It
was definitely the most crowded I’ve
seen it in awhile and the team actually
looked pretty good. They were playing
hard and scoring some nice baskets.”
Fans at the game were also privileged
with the chance to see a slam dunk by
sophomore John DeVries, an occurrence which has become a rarity at
Covenant in recent years.
And while the Scots failed to
defeat a strong Emory team that night,
they showed signs that a corner could
be turned very soon. There’s rumor
going around of a fan group comparable to the Crazies starting up, and
the word about Covenant basketball
is getting out there. Just the other day,
for example, I was driving down the
mountain, listening to the radio, and
one of the local talk show hosts announced that Covenant College would
be playing Emory University this
week. I found myself thinking how
weird it was to hear Covenant basketball being mentioned on the radio,
but shouldn’t it be that way? Why can’t
Covenant basketball games become a
fun-filled, popular, community event?
Ultimately, the answer to that lies in
the cheering voices of potential fans,
and in the hands of a team that needs
to improve upon its 1-6 record. Hopefully, the hard-fought, highly-viewed
games like the one against Emory this
past Tuesday are a sign of things to
come. The team’s next home game is
this Thursday against Piedmont College at 7:00. Come out, get crazy, and
show your support.
Congratulations to Hunt Davidson and
Chris Pifer of the men's soccer team for
receiving All-Tournament honors as they
helped guide the Scots to a fourth place finish at the NCCAA National Tournament.